Black, White, Brown, Republican, Democrat….none of that matters. Tonight, we all witnessed history.

First off, congratulations to Senator McCain for a well-fought campaign. Your class throughout the election was refreshing to us all and you will forever be an American hero in this land.

Second, I’m afraid the majority of Americans do not realize the significance of tonight. Tonight, a black man won the Presidency. Think about the impact of that. We aren’t even 50 years removed from racism in our land. From a time when a black man couldn’t use the same restroom as a white man. A time when blacks were treated lower than animals. A time when black parents had to raise their children into a world that hated them. The “Dark Ages” of our nation.

Not only that but go back with me even further. This is a nation that not only discriminated against black people, but used to own them and use them as slaves. I’m not going to jump into the specifics and arguments on slavery, but to turn around less than 200 years later and have a black man running the nation is incredible.

So to Mr. Obama, congratulations. You have a long and difficult road ahead of you. And to Americans everywhere, enjoy this night of history. Whether your candidate won or not, revel in the fact that you were alive to witness and vote in the election that changed the history of America.

As most everyone knows now, Ashley Todd was in fact faking her attack. After failing a polygraph test, she came out and admitted the whole thing was made up.

What is my response? Of course I’m upset with her. I don’t think any McCain supporter isn’t. This kind of distraction is exactly what we don’t need with less than 2 weeks left until voting day. Why she did it, I have no idea. But if she truly wanted to help the McCain/Palin campaign, she would have continued to make phone calls and encourage others to vote.

Also, to those of you who took the time to remind me to update this post, thank you for your reminders. I had not forgotten or neglected to do it but was actually traveling when the news broke and did not have an internet connection to update this story. I have been traveling for over 20 hours now and only have 5 hours sleep within the past 72 hours. So my lack of immediate update was not purposeful, but due to lack of ability to update. Thank you again.

You couldn’t get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience.

You couldn’t become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.

You couldn’t get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.

You couldn’t join the military and become a colonel after 143 days of experience.

You couldn’t get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience.

BUT…

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That’s how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World…143 days.

We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that’s all it is—a start. And strangely, a large sector of the American public is okay with this. We wouldn’t accept this in our own line of work, yet some are okay with this for the President of the United States of America?

So much for morals in America. We just sent a message to all of corporate America that you can play dirty and we’ll be there to help you when you fall.

More than this was about what was right or what was best, it was about President Bush being able to leave office without an economic crisis on his hands. This was his way of washing his hands clean of the situation.

History shows that bailouts don’t work. In 1979, Congress passed a $1.2 million bailout for Chrysler. Chrysler then spent the next 3 years bankrupt…only not willing to declare bankruptcy. They negotiated and renegotiated with lenders and investors until the only thing lenders could do was swallow large losses and agree to keep Chrysler afloat.

But lenders don’t take defeat well. They turn to the next guy on the totem pole and take it out on them. Know who that is? It’s the citizens—you and I. We pay taxes. We pay for loans. We suffer higher prices and loan percentage rates because of it.

So go ahead and think this bailout will work. It won’t. Time will tell. As someone recently told me, “This bailout is just a stall. It’s like a kid looking in his backpack when he knows darn well he didn’t do his homework.”

Originally entitled Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending and written by Stephen Holmes, this article was printed on September 30, 1999, in the New York Times.

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets—including the New York metropolitan region—will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

”Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990’s by reducing down payment requirements,” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. ”Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990’s. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Make a cup of coffee. Walk to the restroom. Surf the web. Drive to the store. Contact a client.

Most of these things take as little as 5 minutes. You know what else you could add to the list? Calling your local Congressman and telling him or her to vote no on the bailout bill.

Your voice does matter. I know my local Congressman asks for a tally of how many people called in support or in rejection of a bill or measure. It affects how he votes.

So yes you can make a difference in as little as 5 minutes. Call them now. Let your voice be heard. As a citizen, you hold the power in this nation. And yes, your call does count.

After you call, tell all your friends to call and encourage them to make a difference.

If you need help finding out who your local Congressman is or how to contact them, leave me a comment with your zip code and I’ll email you their name and number. Together we can make a difference in how Washington is run.